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thessalian · 6 months

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Faerun!Alisaie vs Auntie Ethel, Again

But first, a certain Blade's aftermath

Wyll: I don't believe I condemned my father to death. I--

Alisaie: Dude, seriously. Look. You could not make that decision yourself, because you're way too damn close to it, so you put it in my hands ... probably at least in part to have someone to blame for it, but okay, fine, I can cope. But let's look at the logic. The man basically disowned you for making that fucking pact. That's how much he hated that you were in it.

Wyll: So, what, he deserves to--?

Alisaie: Oh, for fuck's sake, no. Look, just shut up. This is Alisiae Tav Talking Time. He sent you away because he couldn't bear seeing you in that pact, and--

Wyll: But he hated me--

Alisaie: ALISAIE. TAV. TALKING. TIME. He did not hate you. He couldn't bear to look at you because he felt like he failed you. He left you to run Baldur's fucking Gate alone at a young age and a demon came in and ... hell, probably manufactured a situation where a pact with a demon was the only way to save the entire city. If he'd left you with any kind of backup, that would not have been a thing. He blames himself. He couldn't look at you because he couldn't help you and it killed him to see it. ...Plus also probably a little bit not wanting to have a demon potentially pulling political strings on the Sword Coast, but that's beside the point. Anyway. Point is that if he knew - absolutely, for 100% certain knew that his death would free you from that pact, I would bet coppers to croissants that he'd stick the blade in his own throat to set you free. Because you are his son and he loves you and parents are willing to die for the lives, safety, and well-being of their children.

Shadowheart: I thought your parents were petty criminals who were looking to sell you off to Sharess' Caress when you were far too young for any of that kind of thing. How do you know so much about parents?

Alisaie: Yeah, fine, my family was not exactly what you'd call 'loving' or anything other than 'abusive' but guys, come on; I'm a bard. I Know Stuff.

Shadowheart: Fair. And honestly, none of this matters in the least because Alisaie is a hero and she's made us all into heroes - and in your case, Wyll, that's ... I suppose 'hero squared', all things considered...

Astarion: What she's trying to say is that there's almost certain to be a 'in the very teeth of time' rescue situation in the not-too-distant future. Don't worry; one doesn't just ... make Duke Ravengard dead, even if Gortash is running things at the moment. They'll take a few days to let the populace forget all about him and then they'll make him dead.

Alisaie: Bedside manner. Get one.

Astarion: I was only saying we've got time. So possibly unbunch your knickers a little, Wyll.

Alisaie: Anyway, there's another good reason why I kind of had to vote for you breaking the pact. Karlach doesn't know your father, doesn't care about politics, and would probably crush my head if I handed you over to Mizora.

Karlach: You're my bestie and all, but ... it's true. I would.

Wyll: So ... good deeds as a distraction so no one thinks we're really hunting them, and then we save my father?

Alisaie: Pretty much, yeah.

And, after a stop at the Baldur's Mouth just to be petty

Wyll: We're doing good deeds ... in the park.

Alisaie: We're prepping for good deeds in the park. Look, when I was younger, I couldn't afford apothecary prices, and foraging for herbalism components so I didn't die of scurvy or infected wounds or whatever else kind of got to be a habit, so... Huh.

Gale: Um ... is that your "illithid so-called Emperor is talking to me" 'huh', or your "I am seeing something that most don't see because I let Volo of all people stick an awl in my eye" 'huh'?

Alisaie: ...Wyll? How do you feel about venting some spleen by stabbing some Bhaal cultists?

Wyll: Fairly good, as it happens, but what--?

Bhaal Cultist: *swearing a lot from behind Invisibility ability*

Gale: Ah. Yes. Botched-surgery-had-perks 'huh'. Fair enough.

Stabnation: *ensues*

Elder Brain servants: *turn up to help* Free uuuuuuuuuus...

Alisaie: ...I do not consider "help I didn't need with an ambush" sufficient payment for letting an elder brain run amok. Just saying.

After that whole mess is sorted

Gale: Are we sure we want to check in on the hag survivors? I mean, that eviction notice about the walls bleeding does not fill me with comfort. I mean, we could go rob Lorroakan...

Alisaie: And then we'll have to hang out with Astarion and he'd want to know why we can't just kill his sire and make him UberVamp and I have enough to cope with right now. I just want to check in on Mayrina and her undead husband because they're bound to be here...

Cleric of Torm: BEGONE, FOUL HAG!

Alisaie: Hey, look, I got ambushed by assassins on the way here, so don't give me shit for my hair not being on point.

Hag Survivors: ................................

Bugbear Dude: She's telling the truth, as it happens.

Cleric of Torm: Oh. Yes. The ... the one Mayrina told us about. Well. Before she could say anything but "baaaa", anyway.

Alisaie: What the fuck--? *heads upstairs* ...Oh for... HEY! CLERIC-LADY! WHAT CLERIC WORTH A SHIT CAN'T REMOVE A CURSE?!?

Cleric of Torm: Um...

Snake Individual: Aw. And I was having such a good time.

Alisaie: ...wut.

Snake Individual: *becomes redcap*

Now-Redcap: *summons multiple giant crabs*

Alisaie: ...And here's me without a pot of boiling water and some garlic butter handy. Oh well. I guess I'll have to improvise.

Stabnation: *ensues again*

When that's all over and done with

Mayrina: Thanks for that. We were fighting her--

Wyll: 'Her'? You mean Ethel? That 'her'? The one we shish-kabobed and set on fire?

Mayrina; Alisaie: That doesn't kill a hag.

Mayrina: Turns out you need to kill her mushrooms first. Oh, by the way, we found out she wanted to eat my baby to turn it into a hag like her, so she's been looking for another kid, and...

Alisaie; Wyll; Shadowheart; Gale: Vanra.

Mayrina: We've got the fixings for Hag's Bane in the safe downstairs. We'd go - I mean, we tried, but I'm not a fighter, Connor ... really only does direct instructions, that scaly asshole was probably hobbling us, our bugbear friend's kind of lacking in the smarts department, and our cleric...

Cleric of Torm: *fervently praying after having done jack all during the fight but cast Shield of Faith on herself and then stand there*

Shadowheart: Gives the priesthood a bad name; I understand.

Wyll: So now where to?

Alisaie: Barman was less than helpful, so we go to the woman in charge at the Blushing Mermaid. Captain Grizly has a bit of a past but not even she's going to be into kid-stealing.

And, back at the Blushing Mermaid...

'Captain Grizly': Lora's a right mare and getting on my tits with this so-called 'missing child' bollocks. I want you to end her.

Alisaie: I have way more important uses to put this particular blade to than killing a frantic parent, lady. And you are not Captain Grizly because she'd do her own damn killing.

'Captain Grizly': *becomes Auntie Ethel*

Wyll; Gale: Whaaaaaaaaaaat the fuuuuuuuuuck...

Shadowheart: Their general perception of the world around them is a bit lacking, isn't it?

Alisaie: So's their grasp of dramatic narrative. So, come on. Vanish and make us chase you into your lair again.

Ethel: Oh, no. Fighting's bad for the baby. I thought I'd give you a bit of an appetizer first anyway.

Various Patrons: *become redcaps*

Alisaie: Oh for fuck's sake, I hope the real Captain Grizly's alive so I can explain why there's going to be more blood than usual on her carpets...

Stabnation: *ensues yet again, because it is that kind of day*

And, eventually, in the hag's lair, after a lot of stabbing and trying not to kill Captain Grizly with her Whispering Mask issue...

Shadowheart: This is not going well. I can't even see her copies, let alone tell which one is really her. And excuse me, invoking duplicity is my thing...

Alisaie: Shadowheart! Flame Strike! THERE! *points at random section of deck*

Shadowheart: ...Oh, right, Volo's nonsense! *calls down holy fire*

Ethel: So you learned a few new tricks. Fine. That won't save you. Look at you, all poison-sick and covered in insects and cowering where my beloved mushrooms stood. You're done. ...Last words, mouthy-bard?

Alisaie: Just four: "I. Got. You. Monologuing."

Ethel: ...what--

Alisaie: *Mobile Flourish - Ranged*

Ethel: *is yeeted into a chasm and dies*

Gale: ...You know Astarion would have yelled at you for losing any loot she might have been carrying down a hole.

Alisaie: Astarion can go fuck himself.

Wyll: Um ... I used my last Misty Step to get over here to destroy the mushroom and ... I'm kind of stuck...

Alisaie: Luckily for you, I can help with that. *tosses a Potion of Glorious Vaulting* The fruits of my foraging labours earlier. Worth having to stab a few assassins for?

Wyll: Right now? YES.

Captain Grizly: ...Are your lives always this insane?

Alisaie: This is actually pretty tame compared to some of the shit we've had this month, honestly. Oh, yeah, by the way, sorry about the ... whole thing in the upstairs. We had to kill a lot of redcaps on your carpet--

Gale: Though she did get me to throw a health potion at some of your clientele so they didn't die of shrapnel bomb, so that's something...

Alisaie: And the chest I poked in your chambers? I honestly thought that was Ethel's and I backed off when I got funny looks.

Captain Grizly: Right. Well. I think saving my life kind of covers all that. You've always got a home at the Blushing Mermaid. ...Say, I remember you - you used to play a battered lute for incoming sailors down on the docks before you moved on to better things!

Alisaie: If that's a request for a command performance, probably going to need to be tomorrow. I've got to make sure Vanra got back to Lora, and let Mayrina know that Ethel's proper dead this time, and then I probably need to wash more than blood out of my hair...

Captain Grizly: ...Well ... my stage is always open.

((Controller Person Note: Yes, Alisaie is technically Featherwind in Ellon, but we're not in Ellon, and anyway, given how well it scans, I couldn't help the Gideon the Ninth reference.))

#Faerun!Alisaie #Thess liveblogs Baldur's Gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers

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scratchandplaster · 1 year

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Stack The Deck - PART 7

CW: reluctant Whumper (POV), aftermath of torture, non-con drugging, toxic relationship, injury, emeto mention

PART 6 ⇽ [Masterlist] ⇾ PART 8

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Delivered at 10:47pm. Delivered, not seen because she's too much of a coward to face the consequences of her actions.

Morris had given every last thing, what else did she want to see? For just a simple sign of life, he would do it, whatever it was. Everything she could ever want, with a little extra hidden inside. To ensure she would stay with him, permanently.

Her ex-lover woke up a while ago, staring and breathing were the only acts Morris could notice while waiting around the bathroom door.

He looked so much better cleaned up, blood washed away from his soft features. His hair gained mass again, a bit wet from the quick cat lick he gave him. The tape around his legs was cut off too, it offered no use like this and limited the basic comfort Morris tried to provide.

He had brought the mattress to this room, covered in an oversized bathing towel to hide any previous blemishes. He cleaned him up the best he could, limited by the sparse selection of his toiletry bag.

A washrag and antiseptic took care of the most egregious areas, seemingly having no effect to calm Elliot down again.

He would also have to take care of that.

Gingerly, he pulled out a bottle of pills, small and flat, rolling it across the tile with a noisy clatter. To bury the hatchet, way too late and worth nothing.

"Should have given you this beforehand," he whispered his non-apology, "but I thought of the alcohol, you know, you don't just mix meds like that..."

He was sure the most of it had exited his system by now. Elliot didn't even seem to notice the gift he was made, focused on Morris instead, like he would stuff them down his throat any second. Morris knew that wouldn't be worth the effort, not in such a way.

"If you have to throw up again, try to aim there," he pointed at the lidless toilet right next to where he was sitting, "would be a pain to clean that all again."

"I threw up?" The first words from Elliot sounded so raspy, you could grind rocks with them. Too weak to ask further, he just stared, lost in the space between them.

"Yeah, I squeezed pretty hard. The whole thing looked like a used grapefruit afterward, but I think I did a decent job fixing-"

Horrifyingly slow, Elliot seemed to remember what happened just before his involuntary nap, sluggishly raising his hand up.

Morris did do a decent job, the gauze was neatly wrapped around all fingers, leaving the thumb separate. A white mitten, it looked like. To support the lost curve that came naturally to the palm, he scrunched up a few paper towels to stuff them under the mauled flesh.

Elliot didn't seem to feel a thing, marking the whole action as a success. The damage was clearly visible, yellow-red stains soaked through the cotton already, carrying the sickly sweet aroma of infection.

"Let me see, we need to change that soon," Morris spoke softly, approaching further. He wouldn't bet on it, but Elliot could do some damage, especially when frightened.

"Go away, don't touch me!" Elliot writhed on the soft terry cloth, unbound but still immobile with exhaustion, he shifted a few inches away to meet the back wall. Realization came over him in waves: "She didn't call, did she?"

"Let me help you." Nice and careful.

"I'll bite, I swear to god!" he sobbed, clearly not believe a single word himself. If that's all he has left, I really did a number on him.

"Ell, come on-"

"I mean it. Go away!"

Too tired to take a new fight, he gave in.

"We could watch the game, the Jays are playing tonight-"

Elliot didn't listen to a single word. Inspecting his thickly wrapped hand while cradling it in the other, he looked like the last breath had left him a long time ago.

"So much..." The horror in his faced settled down, tears now flowing freely down.

"Yeah, it had to be. She likes to overdo it, you know? But look, you're not a lefty, in a few months it will be back to normal. A screw here and there, you won't even notice the difference."

Compelled to continue, even through Elliot's found-again silence, he tried to explain the answer to his endless questioning:

"She never stopped talking about you. Stockbroker, crypto startups and so on." Morris gaze shifted through the window, now far away from guilt and ichor.

"You can laugh at me for that, no hard feelings. But I believed her."

Elliot had no intent to follow that invite, his face heavy with lead-like weight throughout the muscles; he had screamed himself numb.

"What do you want now?" he followed the quiet up with, ready to turn down any new game Morris had up his sleeve. He lost a long time ago.

"You need some energy back, so I brought you something."

Casually held in his grasp, he presented Elliot with a lukewarm can of Red Bull. Automatically, Elliot took it without asking further, holding it to his lips.

Morris averted his view from the misery below, acting disinterested as Elliot finally took a few sips of the sugary liquid. They stayed together, minutes passed till he was sure Elliot wouldn't struggle against his aid.

"I need to rest, and so do you."

Weakly shaking his head no, Elliot continued to sit still on the makeshift cod with the empty can in hand. A little extra in that, too.

He felt no joy in scaring him with violence, never had. A part of Morris despised him for being the old flame, the presentable version of what he so desperately tried to be. He would do everything for her, kill for her, but was not even worth a courtesy call, a fate Elliot had to share with him now.

One and the same, after all.

Not impressed by any of Elliot's threats, he let himself slide down onto the cod, keeping his hands by himself. He was a patient man, after all. Minutes ago, he had already seen the signs of sleep tugging at his frail body, senses slowly going south. He wanted so keep him sweet and distracted, a sudden outburst of panic would only worsen the situation, so he tried to keep the act up.

"You never told me what kind of band you got going."

Elliot pressed his left hand tightly against his stomach and as far away as humanly possible from the source of his injury.

"Orchestra, not band. A whole ensemble: choir, strings, winds. We rehearsed yesterday, for the Christmas Oratorio. Bach 'n all that, y'know."

"So you're a singer, huh?"

Slipping away again, so gentle this time, the drug guided him to let go of the tension in his muscles. Not even daring to notice, Elliot's head tipped to the side, safe and secure against Morris' shoulder. Only a slight shake of his head still held him in the exchange of amenities.

"P-pianist."

--------

He didn't think of Amber when unwrapping the old bandages, and neither as he took a good look at the dubious white spots that started to form in his absence. The bloodless tissue made the two last digits look almost ghostly. Quickly changing the gauze, he guided the limb back to the secure place on Elliot's chest, now rising and falling at a soothing pace.

He tried to do it all tidy and cleanly, the swelling seemed to give the palm back some of its previous structure.

There was a slight twinge of, well, guilt. He had no reason to feel responsible for this, warning her thoroughly, so no harm was to be blamed on him. He tried his best.

Wet heat rose from the throbbing wound, still soaking through the material towards the outside, as if all of Elliot's warmth flowed out of it. It was visible by now how much damage he really endured; the stress made his eyes puffy and sore, the weak shiver still haunted his fingertips.

Morris wished he would have done it to anyone else, to anyone who was just half as bad at cards. Someone who he had imagined meeting in that apartment; a vain, insolent snob. He would never cross that person, it seemed, at least not in this house.

Morris thought of hearing him play just once. It had to be enchanting, surely.

The thick brown leather of his overcoat enclosed Elliot's body, now laying on his side, to keep any remaining warmth inside him. Not even daring to waste the time he had bought himself, Morris too sat down on the mattress, leaning against the bare walls. They would wake together, never alone, never abandoned.

As he let himself join in the emptiness that sleep granted them, he dreamed of melodies and matches, of the peaceful company he had thrown away so carelessly.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Thanks for reading 🤍 [Febuwhump 2023 Masterlist]

@febuwhump

#whump #whumpblr #creative writing #whump community #whump drabble #febuwhump #febuwhump2023 #febuwhumpday23 #reluctant whumper #aftermath of torture #non-con drugging #toxic relationship #injury #emeto #gore #infection #carewhumper #lima syndrome #morris fucked up big times 😢no more crazy eights for you

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hidingoutbackstage · 1 year

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Okay since you were good about warning me not to read OMWC, I want to turn the question back around and ask if you know of any decent Chreon fics youd recomend to folks? The only one I've read is uhh "Will you feed the monster within or put up a fight" which I did enjoy but other than that idk whats good

Okay 1) I appreciate immensely that you put this much trust in my opinion on what’s good, and therefore here I am putting pressure on myself to not let you down. 2) I have certain taste in fanfics (as in things I’m more likely to click on) and one big one is canon compliant/or like, things that follow canon somewhat, but that doesn’t mean that’s all I read, it’s just a common thread with a lot of fics I like. (I also like longer fics, though I’ll try to include some shorter things as well) Hope at least one of this tickles your fancy

Returning by Syntheticpalindromes is a series following them after the events of Vendetta as Chris and Leon become good friends, fall in love and get all domestic and shit. I’m gonna be honest, despite this being a series, I most often go back to read Body from the Balcony because it’s the longest one and that’s the fic where they grow close and fall in love, the other two are about the aftermath of 8 and while they’re also good, I just personally really like rereading Body from the Balcony (which since it’s the first can also be read as a stand-alone)

The Twinkle in Your Eye (The Rainbow in My Life) by Aideryn is a fic that takes place in an alternate version of the canon events that we see, basically all the events of canon do happen, but also it’s a soulmate au where as you and your soulmate fall in love, you gain the ability to see colors. REALLY cute in my opinion there’s like. A few canon divergents? But it mostly follows a lot of key events in Chris’ and Leon’s timelines. One of the first Chreon fics I read and really enjoyed and kept coming back to. Also there’s really good artwork included in the fic!

these ink-stained memories by Antarctica_or_bust is a series similar to The Twinkle in Your Eye, where it follows canon events except it’s (kind of) a soulmate au, but this au specifically it’s not “soulmates” rather the idea is “the names of people you fall in love with get written on your skin.” The first fic is mostly a character study of Leon through all his canon appearances, and I really like it, while the rest of the series is him and Chris falling in love. Great stuff I reread it all the time

try your whole life to be righteous and good by arklaygothic (aceofcorvids) is an au series where instead of going to Europe, Chris returns to Raccoon City. But unlike omwc, he doesn’t join anyone for their campaign in 2, rather he shows up after everything is done, and he meets up with his sister, Leon, and Sherry, and it’s mostly just the four survivors, well, surviving after some pretty harrowing events. Chris and Leon immediately like each other, there’s some background chamberfield, it’s overall pretty wholesome and calm

Be My Remedy by tirsynni is a fic where Leon, Rebecca and Chris are on a mission, but this is after Vendetta and the mission itself is kind of a backseat to the afterwards. Leon gets a minor infection that he has to kind of wait out, in the meantime he has Chris and Rebecca to watch over him. The chreon is pretty good, nothing too explicitly romantic but they care for each other, and I always like Leon and Rebecca friendships.

Sticky Notes by amaurot is a simple marriage proposal fic. Chris gives Leon a book as an anniversary present, there’s sticky notes throughout it, it’s short sweet and wholesome. Also I didn’t spoil anything with that description cuz it’s all in the tags and summary lol

Persona Non Grata by Yuu_chi is a fic that I am famous for liking. Leon and Chris have an “arrangement” going on starting after 6 that’s pretty much just sex and nothing more. After the events of 7, though, a certain blond man who survived a mold house throws a wrench into it. I think it does a great job characterizing Leon and Chris at these points in their timeline, and Ethan too, even though he’s in less of the fic, it’s overall just like. Really fun and a good read to me

#sid answers #kiefer #chreon #fic reccomendations

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foxgirlplushie · 2 years

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I don’t know jack and/or shit about Arknights besides cute/cool kemono characters but 1 for the ask thing!

Ooooooh you CANNOT expect me to pick just one so I am going to infodump about some of my faves under a cut! (If you held a gun to my head I would have to pick Myrrh, then Perfumer/Sussurro/Frostleaf, then everyone else I talk about)

Ok first up is my url namesake and my icon Myrrh!! Look at her! She's a medic who joined Rhodes Island (the landship you live on) after her friend became infected with magical rock cancer, she specializes in herbal medicine that tastes *awful*, and she has debilitating social anxiety! Gameplay-wise, she has skills that let her heal an additional person every so often and she refreshes everyone's health when you deploy her. She is also transgender. (Myrrh is technically a codename, but she mentions that it was given to her by Kal'tsit [head medic of RI and a lot more but that's complicated lore stuff] and my headcanon is that when she joined up she didn't want to give them her deadname but she hadn't decided on a new name yet, so Kal chose Myrrh for a codename and she just rolled with it)

Secondly is Perfumer! She's another medic who runs the Convalescent Garden on the landship and does aromatherapy sessions. She's very nice and helpful with everyone she meets (she's the one who helped Myrrh develop her medicine to be slightly less awful tasting) and just. So so lovely. Also she's super pretty. In-game she's an AOE Medic, which means she heals for slightly less, but can heal three people at once (with an upgrade that lets her target four!), and a talent that gives every unit on the map small passive healing! Of all my faves she's the only one that's really "meta" (which means she's good for really tough levels).

Frostleaf!!! She's a former child soldier turned mercenary who came to RI for oripathy (magical rock cancer) treatment. She's super quiet and likes music and fashion and also hitting people with cold magic and big huge axes. She was my very first e2 promotion and theres so much good fan content of her. She's a ranged Guard with a massive range and skills that slow or bind enemies, but unfortunately she's very very underpowered compared to other units. HG please my girl needs a buff.

Sussurro!!! Yet another medic, but this one actually went to medical school! She became infected there and now works at RI in exchange for treatment. She's very small but is very serious about being a doctor, and god forbid you treat her like a child. (She has an Operator Record [which is a tiny side story] that focuses on her helping with the aftermath of a natural disaster and kicking ass and inspiring an NPC who doubted her at first to join RI) She has a skill that turns her healing into ABSOLUTE TURBO MODE, but she can only use it twice per level, so don't waste it!

Those are I think my big four favorites, but let's keep going just because.

Vermeil! She's an archer who was a feral child living alone in the woods after her village was massacred. She has a rad prosthetic arm and is my tiny gremlin child.

Red!! The first non-fox operator we have, she's a wolf who was raised by "Grandma" (who we know basically nothing about) and now is an assassin/bodyguard. She has one skill that massively buffs her attack and gives her dodge for a little while after she gets deployed, and one that stuns enemies in the tiles next to her when she's deployed. She has a lot of knives hidden in her coat and is autistic.

Liskarm! She's a defender with an electric shield she uses to zap enemies and a gun, which in this universe is powered by magic. (The electricity is also her specific magic) She's from rural nowhere and dreams of starting her own bodyguard company. Her partner is Franka and they have the specific *bickers constantly and claims to hate each other but really do care deeply about each other* dynamic that is just ... *Chefs kiss*

Franka, Liskarm's partner! She's lighthearted and optimistic and loves pranking people, especially Liskarm. They were both working for a separate mercenary company when Franka got infected and transferred to RI. Liskarm also filed for a transfer without her knowing and there was a *scene* when she found out. (They have a separate side manga series focusing on them and their apprentices and its very good and very gay)

One more because I'm almost at pic limit but we'll finish with Cliffheart!! She's a mountain climber who got infected after falling one day but now shes being treated at RI. Her brother is the CEO of capitalism and her sister is the Cat Pope and they aren't talking to each other which she super hates. She's a Puller, which means she throws hooks and ropes at people and pulls them towards her (usually into a bottomless pit).

#arknights #sorry for long post but i love my blorbos #if you wanna know more i will gladly infodump more about anyone listed or other characters depending #asks

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madcatdaderpydrawer-blog · 2 years

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Just to clarify on a previous post: Moon was by no means at all willing to let Sun help with his emotional state for a while after the infection ordeal. Just like with the redemption au, the relationship was very strained. Moon knew that Sun couldn’t help the things he said, but he still said them. He still spent a month terrorizing him for fun. He can’t just get over that.

Whenever Sun tried to ask how he was feeling, he shut down and became cold and hostile even knowing that Sun had the best intentions and just wanted him to feel better because he didn’t want Sun to know how he was feeling. Why would he? For so long, all of his emotions were thrown right back at him, used against him to break him down. He didn’t want to let Sun in, and it hurt. Sun regret that he hurt his brother so much, though it wasn’t physical it was clear that he left a lot of damage. So even though it drove Sun insane, he did step back somewhat. He had to wait for Moon to let his walls come back down, because Moon has trust issues and for once Sun was dealing with the aftermath of them. Moon always trusted him, he never was on the receiving end of his trust issues, but now... now it was different. So while he did step in quickly about his less diserable habits, he couldn’t discuss why they formed with Moon for a long time because he would freeze up. It’s like trying to earn the trust of a stray animal- you can give them the necessities, but you also have to give them space or they’ll pull away. As much as Sun wanted to make his brother happy, and even though he hated seeing Moon so clearly miserable, forcing his involvement would only make him pull away more.

Eventually Moon did soften up, and he had his own little ways of expressing that he wants to talk about emotion stuff.

Here’s some added fluff to make up for the angst:

The way he approached the first conversation was by lurking by Suns bed while he drew. He had a massive blanket over his head, so his eyes were basically the only things visible, and he also had his Sun plushie. He was too shy to directly ASK Sun for a hug, so he just kept squeezing the Sun plushie in a hugging manner- which Sun eventually noticed, and he gently asked if Moon wanted a hug. Moon shyly nodded, and Suns heart melted because efbeyfbue he was acting like a shy little kid and it has no right to be so cute. So he let Moon come up into Suns bed and hugged him, and Moon fell asleep quickly. It was progress and fuck it Sun was just happy Moon was even sleeping in the same room as him. For a while he wouldn’t sleep in their room and instead slept in the naptime area as he had when Sun was infected, because he was too paranoid. Whenever he would sleep up there when Sun was infected, he would scream at him for it and being woken up by being yelled at is god awful.

#fnaf security breach au #role reversal au #daycare attendant #fnaf sun #sunrise #sundrop #fnaf moon #moondrop #hurt/comfort

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nondeducible · 3 years

Text

i wanna get some stuff off my chest re: recent health adventures and what’s been going on in my life over the last few months. i also got a fair amount of asks about my surgery in march so this will clear up what happened. i didn’t want to tell anyone apart from my closest friends and family because it was a very difficult time and i didn’t want it to look like i was seeking attention or pity. but i’m fine now and i guess i just need to vent a bit.

i want to start off by saying i’m fine. I’M FINE. i’m still recovering, i’m doing okay, the worst is behind me.

in late january this year i got diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer. actually, a year before that (december 2019) i got diagnosed with stage 1 cervical cancer, which was swiftly surgically removed. it all looked fine but the pandemic made it really hard to get in person appointments with my gynaecologist and so my pap smears got massively delayed. by the time i got one done it had been almost a year since my last one and the cancer had progressed very quickly.

the summer of 2020 was pretty rough. i had shingles 3 (three!) times within 3 months, i developed temporary hyperthyroidism because of the viral infections, and also developed a mild but persistent megaloblastic anaemia. i guess looking back at it now it seems cancer should’ve crossed somebody’s mind given my previous history but i don’t blame those doctors for not checking for it. hindsight is 20/20 and cervical cancer was really not the obvious answer.

i finally managed to get a pap smear in december 2020 and the results came back bad. i had a biopsy and that was even worse. idk if you can imagine how terrifying it is to hear the words “you have cancer” but i was so so so scared. as a med student i immediately thought of worst case scenarios (obviously), especially before i knew what stage the cancer was. in the midst of all this i got kicked out of the house and had to find a place to live asap so you can imagine the insane amount of stress i was under.

back to january 2021. after a few more tests the final diagnosis was stage 2 cervical cancer. the final decision was surgery and no chemo. i was going to have the cervix, the topmost part of the vagina and some surrounding tissues taken out (a trachelectomy). it was going to be a laparoscopic procedure. i mean, it was a laparoscopic procedure - everything i just described did happen. i even posted about that back in march.

the surgery itself went fine, there were no surprises and everything went according to plan. i felt as good as you might feel after major surgery, no real complaints there.

it all kind of started to go downhill the next day. to cut a long story short, two days after the surgery i was diagnosed with bacterial sepsis (thanks, staphylococcus aureus) and can’t remember a thing that happened over the next few days (idk if anyone noticed i was gone from tumblr lol). imagine my surprise when i woke up on the fifth day to the news that it’s been 5 days and that i kinda almost could’ve died. but i didn’t! i’m FINE. basically almost all damage to my internal organs was fully reversible (i say almost because my intestines are still not doing so great but it’s not entirely clear whether it’s due to sepsis or my IBS going wild in the aftermath).

i spent some time in the hospital getting better, bored off my tits, then got out and that’s basically it. it looks like the surgery was truly a success, tests have shown no traces of cancer, so i am in full remission. if there's one thing i've learnt from all this it's that pap smears are important, doubly so if you have HPV. (i don't which actually makes my case incredibly rare, but that's a story for another time.)

that’s it, that’s my story. it’s been a truly wild year, the pandemic notwithstanding. i truly hope the worst is behind me because that was Really Bad and i’m not sure i could cope with something even worse. i mean i’m still poor as shit, still struggling financially (i lost my one remaining job when i was in hospital and now depend on sporadic freelance gigs) but i’m trying to stay positive. what else is there right?

#don't reblog this or i will hunt you down #anyway phew it feels so good to let it all out

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fleetwoodmak99 · 3 years

Text

Long Past Dawn Part 2

Eric Draven x Reader Headcanons

WARNINGS: Terrible Writing, Unconsciousness, Mentions of Blood, Violence, Panic Attacks, Deep Sadness, Death, Emotional and Physical Pain.

SUMMARY: Aftermath of Long Past Dawn Part 1. It talks a little bit more about Eric’s POV but contains fluff. This is dedicated to @sister-morticia, who has been a true friend and inspired me so much.

After you slipped into unconsciousness, Eric immediately took you to the hospital. He knew he wouldn't be able to give you the proper medical attention that you needed and he wasn’t going to risk losing you.

With quick thinking, he scooped you up in his arms and used the crow as a guide to find the nearest hospital.

Eric would want to stay with you the whole time. Literally trying to hold onto any part of you at all times, completely terrified that he was going to lose you again.

You would go in and out of consciousness, your body not even letting you confront the pain. Fortunately, the doctor gave you some pain medication to help with the torment.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, the doctor explained that the bullet hadn't hit any major arteries in your leg, only damaging the muscles and exited through the back right side. Luckily, they were able to stop the bleeding and patch you up neatly. Saying that you are expected to have a good recovery as long as it doesn't get infected.

The doctors would let you rest at the hospital until you woke up but would have to kick you out due to overcrowding from the violence erupting on Devil’s Night. Eric on the other hand, has another plan.

Knowing fully well that Skank was going to tell Top Dollar about what happened, putting a target on both your backs once again. He knew you weren't going to be safe here and the sooner he could get you somewhere safe, the better.

So Eric lifted your motionless body from the hospital bed, grabbing some medical supplies and ran off into the night, being careful not to wake you in the process. Going to the only place he knew you would be safe, your old shared apartment.

Eric lets you rest for however long you need, probably resting right beside you with a hand relaxing on your stomach. It was his way of making sure you were still breathing, that you were ok and safe. Or he would rest it on your chest, in order to feel your heart beating steadily.

If he can't sleep, he would definitely stay up hatching some sort of plan to take care of Top Dollar and his henchmen. Eric knew he would never stop until you were both dead. There was no way Eric was going to let that happen.

As the pain medication starting to do its job, you slowly came out of unconsciousness. At first, being very confused as to what happened and where you were. Even through the medication, your head throbbed as you felt like your entire leg was on fire.

Confusion lead to pure panic as you notice where you were, everything hitting you at once. All the pain and sadness you had buried the past year, coming to the surface.

Eric would hear your soft sobbing and come running so fast. He expected you to be confused but he didn't expect to see you curled up in a ball as you struggled to get your breathing under control, your whole body starting to shake.

Eric immediately going to wrap his arms around you. He wanted to hold you, comfort you, wipe your tears away and tell you everything was going to be okay but he instead, you pushed him away.

You were completely terrified. Terrified of the pain you were facing, terrified that someone was trying to hurt you, terrified that Eric wasn't Eric anymore. Eventually, your thoughts going too fast to keep track of them.

Eric tried not to show it but he was hurt. He can see your pain, its only natural for him to rush to your side. He would simply put his hands up in an attempt to show you he was no threat, repeating the same words over and over again.

"I won't hurt you." “I won’t hurt you.” “I won’t hurt you.”

You might not believe him at first, after everything happened you put up walls to protect yourself, he would never blame you for that. What he will do is everything in his power to make sure you feel safe with him again.

At first, he would just sit by you. Offering you water, food, a blanket to keep you warm, anything you might need in this moment.

Eric is very patient. He will sit there for however long it will take until you feel comfortable with him.

Eric will attempt to help you with your breathing, asking you to focus on taking deeper breaths to slow it down. Holding his hands out in order to hold your trembling ones.

When you felt comfortable enough you would reach out your hand to meet his, him giving it a gentle squeeze while doing his best not to squeeze to hard.

Right then, Eric was able to feel everything. Seeing the pain, the anxiety and the loneliness you had experienced the past year all through your eyes.

Eric still doesn't fully understand the full extent of his abilities yet but he was thankful for this one. This way you never had to be alone again, he would feel everything with you. It made your connection stronger, you both could feel it.

Eventually, you would slowly lean into him. Burrowing your head in his chest as his hands softly wrapped around you. Rubbing your back to attempt to further calm your anxieties, giving him more pieces to the puzzle.

Eric could see you in the hospital after his death a year ago, you look so defeated. Clearly in a lot of physical and emotional pain. He wishes he could have been there for you. Eric understands why he couldn't but that doesn't mean it doesn't frustrate him.

Eric didn't realize how much his death would effect you. He almost thought himself the lucky one that didn't have to go a full year without you as you did him.

Eric would sit there with you for however long you needed, just holding you. Offering soft kisses on the top of your forehead as you worked through your running thoughts.

"They will never be able to hurt you again. I promise."

And he was intending on keeping that promise by taking out Top Dollar and his goons for good. Experiencing your memories only fueled his anger towards the top dog criminal.

You simply replied, "I thought I lost you forever." Tears filling your eyes once again. Eric could feel wetness collecting in his shirt.

Eric would squeeze you closer to him. He always gives the best hugs, especially the 'I thought I lost you' kind of hugs.

After anxiety had finally loosened its grip on you and Eric knew you were comfortable, he would focus his attention to your leg. Giving you more medication for the pain, rebandaging it, giving you water to stay hydrated, anything you needed really.

Eric would try to hook up the electricity so you could watch some form of entertainment on the TV or the record player so you could listen to music. If that fails because he's not the best with that kind of stuff then he's going to get you some books for you to read.

While you spent time resting and healing, Eric spent time executing his plan. He was surprised how much of an inconvenience it was to take out Top Dollar. With the help of the crow, Eric basically plowed through Top Dollar and anyone else how sided with him.

When he gets back, takes a shower to get the blood off and lays back in bed with you, you were still deep in sleep. Eric notes how peaceful you look, wanting nothing more for you to be happy.

Something that is constantly on his mind is when he's going to have to return back to the dead. Will it be in a few hours? A day? A week? Never?

However long it may be, as long as he knew you were content then he would make sure to treasure ever moment of life with you.

#eric draven #the crow imagine #the crow 1994 #eric draven headcanons

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princess-of-the-corner · 3 years

Note

Human After All: I'd like to know more about A) Lust realizing that Hohenheim had an actual life in Resembool and B) everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do the human transmutation and the aftermath.

Oh boy here we fuckin go!!!!!

Lust realizing that Hohenheim had a life in Resembool:

Oh boy. Okay so this has some setup.

When Lust first meets Ed and Al, she assumes the situation is a lot different. Basically They're close enough to be mistaken for twins, so she thought it was more "one night stand and disappeared from town but their mom remembered the name and told the kids". Because... Why would he stay?

But then Lust babysits Ed and Al on a trip back to Resembool to visit Winry and her grandma. And like.

Lust gets curious about some things. And she happens to see a photo album out that she can't help but look through.

Of course Granny finds her snooping but just lets her look through it and explains that it's from Winry's parents' wedding. And Lust eventually flips to a page where Hohenheim is in the photo.

Lust pauses on it because it's so strange. First in general, of how Hohenheim looks just like Father but also nothing like him at the same time. Physically identical, but the way they carry themselves is.. Entirely different.

Especially as this picture is kinda goofy. Granny tells her how everyone was hinting to Hohenheim that he should marry Trisha since they were already "basically married". And the newly married Sarah Rockbell had given up pn subtly, and chucked her boquet right at Hohenheim's face with a "sorry I was aiming for Trisha!"(which no one belives because she has incredible aim).

Lust asks more on that. And Granny mentions how Hohenheim and Trisha had been together for a bit amd were already living in the same home. And that pretty much immediatly after that whole "lack of subtly" the pair decided "despite not going through legal paperwork we are married now fuck you' and also bonus pregnancy announcement. Which has Lust relize Ed and Al aren't twins.

But it's weird to her. Because like. Hohenheim had a life here? He was with this woman for a few years and essentially got married (clearly the "don't go through the paperwork" is because he doesn't legally exist). But like. He had a wife and kids. One of the kids seems to have been actually planned. Why would he do that? And why did he leave? No one has answers on that, but Granny says that if he did leave, it was for good reasons. Not whatever the town gossips make up for fun.

Granny is a little sus about Lust's interests in all this because like. I kiiinda mentioned this before on my artblog but he way I draw Lust she actually looks a lot like "if Ed was a girl" and considering how much Ed looks like Hohenheim... They basically look somewhat related. Granny points that out and kinda pulls some Gaslight Girlboss Gatekeep of "nope no relation whatsoever my father just worked with him long ago but it's totally not relevant to anything!"

Anyway!

Later, Lust is wandering around Ed and Al's home because that fucker hasn't burned yet. And she just... Sees more of it.

True. It's been just the boys for years but there's still things like his clothes in the bedroom closet or something casually put on a shelf too high for Trisha to have reached.

The two rooms that really hit are the bedroom and the study.

Tbe bedroom is mostly untouched. But she sees a shelf of little statues. It's strange to her, but she realizes all the statutes are made from Alchemy. About half of them have very obvious marks, a sign of a talented but inexperienced maker. Seeing two distinct styles, she cam guess Ed and Al made those.

The rest are perfect. Intricate and flawless. If they weren't on the shelf with the others, she would've thought they were made by some master clay artist.

Alchemically made trinkets as gifts for someone they love.

The study is another beast altogether. A whole library on Alchemical texts. Some even older than Lust. All marked up with someone's notes in the margins. The same person's notes, as the handwriting doesn't differ. Clearly all these are important. So why leave them?

The real hard hitter is a journal Hohenheim left. Of course Lust reads it. The fact that the journal is written in Xerxian is just another punch to the gut, but thankfully Lust can read it.

It has a lot of things but the main info she reads is an entry from when Ed was just born and Hohenheim is discussing worries over how his whole "Philosophers Stone in Human Form" deal might be effecting Ed in terms of like. Genetics and stuff.

But the main thing Lust focuses on is that Hohenheim mentions discussing those fears with Trisha. That he told her what he was and his whole history and everything.

It's... Confusing to Lust. Why did Hohenheim just settle down here in this small ass rural town with a normal woman? What was it about her that compelled him to stay in one place so long? To settle down after years and have a kid? Having a second kid? And telling her about... Everything?

She finds no answer because, from all accounts, it seems like Trisha was just a normal, small-town girl. She didn't even have an interest in Alchemy! Just gardening. Why her? Why not someone at least... Great and powerful to match what he was? Even if no one could truly compare to what he was.

Everyone's reactions to Ed and Al sneaking off to do Human Transmutation:

Oh boy. This is a big plot point.

So the boys had quite a plan to trick the adults. Lust has gone on trips out of town for weekends(reporting back to Father), and she's also babysat the boys on a trip to Resembool before. So the boys wait until one of her trips and tell Roy and Riza that she's taking them on a different trip to Resembool. None of the adults know this until Lust comes back without them and has no idea where they were.

They put it together real fast and all three book it to the train station. Several hours of worried pacing of what could've happened.

Roy and Riza are entirely in the dark of what might happen. Lust though... She knows how the Gate works. And what could have happened.

She knows that There's a Price to pay. And while she was planning on encouraging the boys to go through the Gate anyway, she was supposed to be involved with it so she could trade a part of her Philosopher's Stone for their safety. Obviously just so they don't loose a Sacrifice to blood loss or later infection! Not because she cares or anything! But yeah without her, who knows what the Price may be?

They check the boys house first. They see plenty of blood, which is a terrifying sight. But they also see a trail leading out. And that if the boys are still alive, they probably went to the Rockbell place.

Which yeah. Granny's already waiting for them. She wants to yell at them for failing, but it would be hypocritical sinve she didn't notice the first time around.

She tells them the boys are alive but fucked up. Ed lost a couple limbs and Al is... Hard to explain.

Lust is the first to notice the suit of armor in the living room. The way it's arranged like a child, curled up and hiding, barely peeking out from behind the "arms". Light in it's "eyes", like someone's in there watching her.

She remembers the experiments done on the death row inmates. Puttin Souls in suits of armor. She's horrified, but not surprised, when it moves.

That is a whole conversation. Lust has to pretend she doesn't know how that works(while also questioning how the boys managed it). Al tells them what he remembers, which is just everythiny going wrong and then being in the armor and Ed missing some limbs.

We have a long emotional scene when Roy goes to talk to Ed.

Ed is very much not okay at this point and he's trying to be angry but it's just not really there. And he just asks why Roy is still there. He failed to keep them from fucking up why does he still care? Just go back home and leave them so he doesn't have to deal with them anymore.

Well that's just heartbreaking. Roy just talks to him about a lot of things. And the main thing was that this wasn't just "I'm gonna try and stop you but whoops failed that bye bitch" situation. He's not just going to drop the kids because he failed once. He's not even going ti drop them after months of pushing him away and being stubborn about the whole situation. They're a family now damn it.

And Ed kinda feels like that might be worse, because he threw that away ti go fuck up. But Roy tells him it's not "thrown away". They're still going to be here for him. And figure things out.

Later at night, Roy, Riza and Lust all kinda sneaknout individually. Which does lead to some comedy until Granny catches them and calls them idiots. But all of them were thinking of going to the boy's house and looking over their notes.

Roy and Lust are the only ones who can make heads or tails of the notes. Riza can follow some but gets lost and Granny never was an Alchemy person. Roy's looking more for "what went wrong" while Lust is focused more on "what went right". And Lust does find that though they came very close to making a Homunculus, they did do everything pretty right. She accidentally comments on that, which leads to a horrifying theoretical of "what if the boys managed to make a fake Trisha that looked and acted like her but wasn't her?". This also leads to the more disturbing question of "what was it they did manage to make"?

This is a thing that came up in Canon, but here they get answers of the thing that they made wasn't their mom, and you can't bring back the dead. Ed and Al take that news about as well as they did in Canon as well.

The "possible homunculus" thing comes up too with the others wondering if Al really is Al and not just... Something vaguely like him that Ed accidentally created. (Lust knows but can't tell how she knows rip!). Riza to the rescue on this one by asking Al about something Ed shouldn't know about. So that existential crisis is averted!

Of course there's discussion of what to do to help Ed and Al. Which... Does lead to getting back toward Canon of "have Ed become a State Alchemist". It's debated a lot because ya know. Sure it's the best option to help them have the freedom and access to stuff tk find shit but. Ya know. Roy already feels like he failed to protect these kids once already this is not helping.

Anyway! One more fun scene!

Please imagine once Ed gets the automail arm and just does the clap-slap Alchemy. And Roy and Riza are like "yo what the FUCK???"

#human after all #haa au

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rockofeye · 3 years

Note

hey, any chance you can give an overview of what's happening in Haiti? i've been trying to follow the news but it's difficult to put together.

Hi there,

I can do my best, but I will tell y’all upfront that the situation in Haiti is multi-layered and multi-faceted with no easy answers or solutions.

The flashpoint for the most recent visible upheaval in the country is related to the current president, Jovenel Moïse. The runoff election he ran in was in 2015 and the results of that election were heavily contested; he was one of the final nominees that would move forward to the presidential election with just under 33% of the total vote but exit polls had him at less than 10% of the vote. Huge protests started and so the final vote was postponed until late 2016. Moïse was declared the winner with less than 25% of the vote, and was sworn in on February 7, 2017.

This is important because presidential term is 5 years, and this is the crux of the current debates and protests. The opposition party and Moïse’s critics maintain that his term ended on February 7, 2021 according to the original election mandate from 2016, and Moïse maintains he is to serve until February 7, 2022 according to when he actually took office.

There are a LOT of different opinions (legal and otherwise) about this. Haiti’s highest judicial body (Conseil supérieur de la magistrature) ruled that Moïse’s term ended on February 7, 2021, and popular opinion is kind of mixed; split very evenly along class in Haiti. Folks who are upper class are generally believing Moïse when he says he will leave on February 7, 2022, working class and folks who are poorer say his term is over. Outside of Haiti, it seems like many Haitian think that he will leave in 2022 or that he needs to leave now to prevent further issues, whether his term is over or not.

Of course the US had to weigh in and Biden recognized that Moïse’s term ends in 2022, which is not helpful at all...the US has meddled enough in Haitian politics via sponsoring various coups and generally occupying the country. Biden’s administration has said that there need to be lawful elections to transition a president out of office, which is a a nice ideal...but what happens with the system is totally broken?

Moïse has not been a super popular president and in many ways has been downright ineffective. He ran on a platform with a lot of big ideas and a falsified folksy background to appeal to the common population in Haiti (many Haitian laugh when folks bring up that Moïse was a banana farmer...). He *has* brought electricity and fresh water to a bunch of communities, but that definitely doesn’t make up for his bullshit.

He’s done enough awful things that, in the eyes of many Haitians. He essentially destroyed Haiti’s parliament (sort of like Congress in the US...Haiti’s government systems are very Napoleonic in origin) by not allowing elections and has ruled by decree since 2019 (I believe), meaning no checks and balances in place. He has thrown the prime minister under the bus any time he receives criticism, and has had numerous prime ministers...he just fires and hires, and since the parliament is essentially hamstrung, he just appoints them.

In late 2020 and early 2021, he started looking more and more like a dictator. He had political opponents and high ranking officials arrested and jailed (senators, a supreme court justice, and the head of the national police, among others) and has made accusations of plots to assassinate him that are super suspicious and likely non-existent. He fired 3 supreme court justices, which is unheard of, and has doubled down on maintaining the office. He’s called for a re-write of the Haitian constitution which, if undertaken at any other time, could potentially be a good thing but right now it sure seems like a grab for power, as some of the proposed re-writes give the president’s office more power than it has right now. The referendum vote is scheduled for late June, and has a LOT of opposition.

So, that’s some background.

In late January, the opposition issued a statement that if Moïse refused to leave, the country would be locked down on February 7. There were already a lot of protests with a lot of shutdowns happening, but when he didn’t step down things, stuff got really hot.

Gangs in Haitii are serious business; they run neighborhoods and many of them are government or opposition sponsored with the goal of creating chaos to drive people to supporting one or the other and to create fear. Kidnappings skyrocketed, both of Haitians and foreign nationals. Folks may have seen the footage of folks walking into a church livestreaming a service and kidnapping the pastor and two others live on camera. It’s been serious and blatant. My step-son was at school when armed gunmen walked in and just grabbed two kids right out.

Gangs have also been used to really instill fear. In poor neighborhoods, they have done things like break into people’s homes, drag them out, and kill them in the street, or burn a block to the ground. Gang leaders say it is in response to various other things happening in the country, but that’s crap...gangs are used as tools to control.

In response to the heightened violence and the kidnapping of at least two lawyers, the entire judicial branch of the government--all of the courts and associated offices--went on strike on February 15, which halted all legal proceedings in a legal system that is deeply broken already (up to 90% of people held in Haitian jails have no charges filed against them). There was a massive prison break in the capital in February where close to 500 people escaped and around 50 were killed during it and in the aftermath, including a gang leader shot at a police checkpoint. A group of police responding to gang violence in a neighborhood in the capital were massacred and the gang responsible refused to turn over their bodies. It’s been a lot.

In the last week, the large gangs (400 Mawozo, the G9 alliance, etc) have agreed to stop kidnappings, which is a huge deal. It’s possible that this is in response to veiled threats coming from the UN and a Caribbean nation alliance about peacekeeping forces to address violence and ensure elections. It seems that Port-au-Prince is the most volatile area (which is pretty average honestly), with much of the other parts of the country not experiencing the same level of violence.

Also in the mix is the deeply disheartening situation with the Dominican Republic. DR continues to deport Haitians and people of Haitian descent regardless of their citizenship status, meaning that hundreds and hundreds of people are being forced to go to Haiti, even if they have never lived there before, do not speak the language, and have no connections to help them. It is an absolutely overwhelming crisis that there has not garnered much foreign notice. At least 200,000 Haitians and folks of Haitian descent have been forcibly removed, with that number likely being much higher. There have been a lot of rumors about extrajudicial killings by police of Haitians in the DR, but of course there is no official statement on that.

These actions by the DR are heavily rooted in colorism/anti-Blackness and anti-Haitianismo, and, if we are really honest, this is a type of ethnic cleansing that has been utilized long-term by the DR.

In all of this, COVID19 has almost been a non-issue. Haiti has not seen the level of pandemic the rest of the world has. Folks are paying attention to the lack of transmission and, when there is a positive case detected, non-symptomatic infection. A lot of folks I know in Haiti don’t know anyone who has had COVID or even heard of anyone having it. Of course, Haiti is well-versed in pandemic management (thank UN cholera-bearers) and folks are used to taking preventative measures so folding in things like handwashing and extra disinfection have been pretty easy for lots of folks.

All of these things have increased the reach of poverty, lack of food and basic needs, and general misery for many folks living in Haiti. Haiti has been dealing with the long-term effects of colonization and occupation since basically forever; Haiti struggles to remain independent in the face of crushing poverty, corrupt governments, and many-strings-attached foreign aid.

So...that’s convoluted basics. I hope this provides some context; please let me know if I can clarify anything.

#Haiti

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spilled-feels · 4 years

Text

Drowning

Reader and Dabi return from what could have been a tragedy. You both deal with the aftermath. (sorry for the crappy summary!)

Okay so this is the first fan fiction I’ve ever written. I hope you guys like it. I kinda just had an idea pop up into my head of this post apocalyptic type world where crime is just running rampant and its dangerous to be outside and such. Not much background needed really because its just one scene but I thought I’d share what was going on in my head at the time.

Some suggestive themes here but nothing graphic just mentioned. Also language obviously its Dabi. (Still not sure how to tag stuff on here so bare with me.)

Also I gave the reader a name just because it is way easier for me. Not really and OC at this point and time!

It was raining when you both arrived back to the hideout that you currently called home. Dabi didn’t say a word to you as he walked past you to get to the old rundown couch. He sat with his elbows on his knees, head in his hands and just stared at the floor. You slowly closed the door and just stood there, too afraid to move or make a sound. You weren’t afraid of Dabi, you hadn’t been for a long time, but you were scared that if you moved it would break the eerie calm that had fallen over the two of you. You could feel yourself barely keeping your head above water, but instead of having Dabi be there to pull you above and out, like he usually did, he was right there next to you fighting for air as well. What would happen if the both of you sank? Would either of you be able to breach the surface again? That thought alone kept your breathing steady and in your mind you stayed above the water. This time even though you were drowning as well you’d try to help him first.

“Dabi…” you flinched. How was your voice so loud even with the storm raging outside? You swallowed the ball that was forming in your throat and walked toward the couch. Dabi didn’t even acknowledge that you had spoken to him let alone when you walked past him and sat next to him on the couch. You were shorter than him but you had to duck down a little to see his face that was covered by his matted down wet hair. Any other time you would have taken your time to appreciate how handsome he looked like that but now wasn’t the time. This time when you spoke you were ready for your voice. “Dabi…” You felt him stiffen next to you as if he just realized how close you were. You tentatively reached for the hand closest to you but decided against it and instead laid it on top of his knee. “You made it in time Dabi. You saved me, I’m fine, I’m alive.”

He stopped breathing the moment you had touched him. How could you even be near him right now? Knowing what he almost let happen to you? When your words hit his ears his head snapped towards you, eyes wide with a look of disbelief across his face and his body leaned away from you in shock. “Saved you?! What do you mean saved you?! Alex I’m the reason you were there in the first place! If it wasn’t for me none of that would have happened to you! How can you sit there and say that to me?!” His voice rose slowly going from shock to disbelief and then finally anger. You couldn’t tell if he was angry at you or himself and that question in your head made the current you were fighting against stronger. “What? Dabi no…” you had started to say when he shot up from his sitting position to stand over you. You shrunk down but he didn’t notice. “No don’t fucking start Lex! I fucking kicked you out, I made you go out there alone and look what almost fucking happened!? If I hadn’t gone to look for you when I did, if I had waited just five more minutes to leave this room they would have… you would have.” He couldn’t even finish that sentence. The thought alone made his heart clench and his stomach want to empty all of its contents onto the floor. You stood and grabbed both of his arms and pulled his hands away from his head. He had started to run his hands through his wet hair and pull at the roots. He tried to pull away from you but you held on and brought his hand to rest on your chest, above your racing heart.

“You feel that? I’m breathing and I’m alive because of you.” His eyes met yours that had begun to water as you spoke and even you could hear the desperation in your voice.The current was trying to pull you under. “Everything that happened, you didn’t cause Dabi. It was caused by those scumbags who thought they could just take what they wanted from me.” Your voice had started to shake and tears began to fall from your eyes. You were sinking. Dabi instinctively took a step towards you and gripped your hands tighter in his as you kept talking. “It was caused by this shitty universe that just seems to constantly fuck us over but it wasn’t your fault Dabi please whatever is going through your head. I just need you to believe that.” Memories of being blamed and hated for things you had no control over started to surface. “I can’t have you resenting me for making you feel like this. I just can’t.” With those words you went under the water.

You were sobbing at this point as Dabi really listened to what you were saying. Those last words you said could have basically manifested as a person, punched him in the gut while simultaneously ripping his heart out with their bare hands. Resent you? How could he ever resent you for something you didn’t even cause? For something terrible that almost happened to you? He pulled you into his chest and you held on to him for dear life as you sobbed into his chest. He didn’t say anything and if he was being honest with himself he didn’t know what to say. His mind was reeling at the thought that even after everything that happened instead of being angry with him, like he felt you should have been and had every right to be, you were scared he was going to resent you. For what? Making him feel guilty when he damn well should be? What the fuck happened to you in your past that made your mind work that way? A memory resurfaced of him waking up after hearing his mother crying in the kitchen. Red hand print across her tear streaked face while she apologized to him for waking him up. His body shuddered as he gripped you tighter against him and leaned his head to your ear and spoke softly. “I could never resent you for this. You did nothing wrong, none of this was your fault.” He doesn’t know how much time passed while he held you and he didn’t care. He was pulling you up from under the water you seemed determined to drown in and he realized then he always would.

Once your sobbing had turned into a small hiccup every now and then he pushed you away from his chest by your shoulders but still kept you close. He reached for your face and wiped your tears away with his thumbs, being mindful of the cuts and bruises that had littered your face after the ordeal from earlier. He felt his anger begin to manifest again but he pushed it down for your sake. Besides those men would never hurt you again or anyone else for that matter because of him. He distantly wished he just had a little more time with them alone in a dark deserted alley but the end result would have been the same so he settled. His finger brushed over the cut on your lower lip and he leaned down and kissed you softly mindful of your injury. The kiss was short and sweet, the complete opposite of him and when he pulled away to speak you could still feel the brush of his lips against yours. “I fucking love you Lex and nothing will ever change that. Do you understand me?”

You simply nodded a little shocked at his confession. Of course you knew he loved you and you loved him but the way his personality was you never thought you’d hear him say it like that. With so much softness but with so much raw emotion it also felt like he was carving it into your skin with a knife. He kissed you again, harder this time as if to further prove your thoughts of the duality he possessed. Your eyes began to tear up again but this time for the love you had for this man. You had no idea where you would be without him and you never wanted to find out. Before the kiss could progress, you shivered and it was then you realized you both were soaking wet from the rain outside. He pulled away and led you to the bathroom by your hand. “Come on. We can’t afford to get fucking sick right now and I can’t have you getting those fucking wounds infected.” You followed closely behind him and let him clean you up in the shower as he continued to whisper sweet nothings into your ear and further assure you that he didn’t and would never resent you for this. All while you clung to him for dear life, unconsciously assuring him that you didn’t hate or blame him for what he did and what happened to you.

If someone told you years ago that a person like Dabi would be your saving grace, the person to constantly save you from drowning in the turbulent ocean you called your mind you would have laughed in their face and never believed them. Same goes for Dabi never did he think he would be able to care or love anyone again after the hell he had been through in his life. Yet here both of you were holding on and keeping each other afloat and neither of had any plans of letting go anytime soon.

#Dabi #bnha #mha #dabi imagine #dabi x female reader #angst

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roughandtumble-r · 4 years

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Delays, Conspiracy Theories, the whole Shebang

Alright, so it’s been a LONG time since I’ve covered a bunch of stuff in a single post like this, but I figured now would be a good time to, so I’m planning on talking about stuff like release dates, what might happen in Bad Guys and the Annual.

First off, release dates! Issue 28 is still slated to come out on June 24th as previously mentioned, but the Annual has now been delayed to July 8th. Issue 29 has also been set to come out on July 22nd and Issue 30 is set to come out August 5th. Bare in mind that all currently revealed release dates should be taken with a grain of salt as they are subject to change.

Speaking of the Annual, I’ve mentioned that it’s going to have six stories and have posted it’s solicitations, but I’ve never actually discussed what each story will be about, have I? Well, we unfortunately don’t have a whole lot of info outside of the covers and the solicitations to work with, but I think we can piece together what some of the stories are going to be about. First off, we have exhibit A...

So judging by Big’s appearence on this cover and his appearence on the A cover, it’s safe to assume there’s going to be a story with Big. As for when it takes place? I’m not entirely sure. It COULD take place towards the beginning of the virus’ spread (the Faceship in the background kinda suggests this too), but the whole gimmick of this year’s Annual is that they’re stories that take place after the virus has already begun, so this could also take place closer to when Issues 21-23 happen (especially because Big was supoosedly present in the events of Issue 22). Actually, because we never saw what happened to Big at the end of Issue 22, it is technically possible that this story could take place afterward, and judging by the background of this cover, it might be possible for it to take place on Angel Island after the Faceship shows up.

Next up, we have exhibit B...

Metal Sonic! He’s here too! The fact that he also gets a cover all to himself suggests to me that he’s probably going to get a story. As for what it’ll be about? I have no clue.

As for the other four stories, we have next to no information of what they could be about or who they’d be centered around. The solicitation DOES mention that some of Sonic’s “worst foes” are going to be important, and I guess that could encapsulate Metal Sonic, but who else could be included? Considering the fact that Rough and Tumble have the Metal Virus and both them, Starline, and Mimic are all going to be the main cast of Sonic Bad Guys, I feel like they probably wouldn’t be included. If any of them were, I feel like Mimic would be the most likely candidate, like maybe we’d get a story explaining how he breaks out of prison during the virus outbreak (kinda like the Scourge Lockdown arc in Sonic Universe but with zombies :3) and that’ll lead into his inclusion in Bad Guys. I guess there’s also the Deadly Six, but... we already know what they’re up to. I guess they could make a mini story involving them that takes place in the time while they’re conquering the planet, but other than that, I don’t see what they’d be able to do with them.

As for which of Sonic’s good ol’ pals could have their own stories, I’m not really sure either since most of them are already present throughout the main story and wouldn’t have many opportunities to go and do their own stuff. I think a story with Whisper after Tangle gets infected would be pretty cool, and they could also probably get away with making a story about what happens with Silver while he’s away. Bare in mind Blaze has also been completely absent since Issue 12, so she’s probably off doing her own thing too and could get her own story (which could also be a good opportunity to bring in Marine). The Babylon Rogues also don’t show up until after everyone gets to Angel Island, so maybe there could be a story about what happens with them before they get there.

I’m pretty much grasping for straws at this point, so I’ll just leave it at that. There are a lot of possible routes the other stories could go, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see.

Next up I want to talk about mini-series related things! Of course, we have Sonic Bad Guys, which will be focused on the bad boys and will probably happen closer to next year. But what’s going to happen in it? Here’s the synopsis for the plot that we already know...

“Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys is a comic miniseries and a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by IDW Publishing. This four-issue miniseries focuses on Dr. Starline in the aftermath of the Metal Virus Saga and what happens when the former assistant and devotee of Dr. Eggman sets up in one of the doctor's abandoned bases.”

So this series evidentally takes place after the Metal Virus arc ends in Issue 29, and it’ll explain where Starline went after getting thrown out by Eggman. Starline’s going to use one of Eggman’s old bases to probably get revenge or whatever, and he’s probably going to team up with Mimic, Rough and Tumble, and I guess Zavok if this cover is to be believed...

Going back to what I mentioned earlier about Mimic breaking ot of prison, it’s basically confirmed with his presence in this series that he did break out of prison at some point, and Rough and Tumble somehow get out of that mine and meet up with them after the virus ends. As for Zavok and the rest of the Deadly Six... I dunno. Since Starline was the one who brought them into all this, I don’t really see why they would be willing to team up. However, I guess they both want revenge on Eggman, so that’ll probably be why. I can also see Rough and Tumble wanting to get revenge on him too (hell, that’s the entire reason they’ve been after Sonic this whole time), but I don’t know about Mimic. I don’t think Mimic really wants revenge because the two actually seem to get along well enough and he didn’t get thrown out or sacrificed, so his inclusion in Starline’s plan is kinda a mystery. Maybe Starline bribes him to get him to work for him? Who knows.

A little part of me also wants to believe that this mini-series is where we’re finally going to learn about the origins of a lot of these characters too, but it’s unknown if that’ll actually be the case. For example, since Starline is the main focus of the story, it would be cool to see his backstory and how he ended up where he is get explained in detail. Also... I want to know how Tumble got his tail chopped off! Give it to me, IDW!

Well, that’s pretty much it for what I wanted to talk about with Sonic Bad Guys. However, there is one other thing that I’ve been thinking about lately, and that’s Tangle and Whisper. You may be wondering why, which makes sense, the series ended way back in December. However, remember back when it was revealed and IDW said that it COULD be continued past Issue 4 if there was enough demand for it? I really only bring this up because... Well, there are still so many questions regarding Whisper and the Diamond Cutters that will have yet to be answered, and I don’t think they would really be the focus of the main series anytime soon. I mean just look at the Diamond Cutters, each dead member and Mimic all still have a lot of mystery behind where they came from and how the team even formed, and Slinger especially was said to have some kind of secret backstory that no one but him knew about. There’s also that scene where Mimic turns into Vector in the last Issue, so maybe a continuation of the series could finally explain how Mimic is somehow connected to Team Chaotix. There’s also one either thing that’s been in the back of my mind that everyone seems to have forgotten...

These wolves from last year’s annual that are very clearly related to Whisper but they’ve never been acknowledged outside of this one story! Like, is it ever going to be revealed how exactly they’re related to Whisper and will it ever be explained if she used to live with them? If she did, how and why did she leave them and join the Diamond Cutters? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS :(

Well, that’s pretty much everything I wanted to cover this time. I’m not entirely sure how often I’ll be able to do more posts like this since Issue 28 is, no matter what, going to be over a month away, but we’ll see what happens.

#roughandtumble-r #sonic #idw #sonicidw #sonic idw #idwsonic #idw sonic #sonic bad guys #tangle and whisper #bad guys #idwissue28 #idwissue29 #idwissue30 #idwannual2020 #annual2020

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scifigeneration · 4 years

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What will the world be like after coronavirus? Four possible futures

by Simon Mair

Where will we be in six months, a year, ten years from now? I lie awake at night wondering what the future holds for my loved ones. My vulnerable friends and relatives. I wonder what will happen to my job, even though I’m luckier than many: I get good sick pay and can work remotely. I am writing this from the UK, where I still have self-employed friends who are staring down the barrel of months without pay, friends who have already lost jobs. The contract that pays 80% of my salary runs out in December. Coronavirus is hitting the economy badly. Will anyone be hiring when I need work?

There are a number of possible futures, all dependent on how governments and society respond to coronavirus and its economic aftermath. Hopefully we will use this crisis to rebuild, produce something better and more humane. But we may slide into something worse.

I think we can understand our situation – and what might lie in our future – by looking at the political economy of other crises. My research focuses on the fundamentals of the modern economy: global supply chains, wages, and productivity. I look at the way that economic dynamics contribute to challenges like climate change and low levels of mental and physical health among workers. I have argued that we need a very different kind of economics if we are to build socially just and ecologically sound futures. In the face of COVID-19, this has never been more obvious.

The responses to the COVID-19 pandemic are simply the amplification of the dynamic that drives other social and ecological crises: the prioritisation of one type of value over others. This dynamic has played a large part in driving global responses to COVID-19. So as responses to the virus evolve, how might our economic futures develop?

From an economic perspective, there are four possible futures: a descent into barbarism, a robust state capitalism, a radical state socialism, and a transformation into a big society built on mutual aid. Versions of all of these futures are perfectly possible, if not equally desirable.

What might our future hold? Jose Antonio Gallego Vázquez/Unsplash, FAL

Small changes don’t cut it

Coronavirus, like climate change, is partly a problem of our economic structure. Although both appear to be “environmental” or “natural” problems, they are socially driven.

Yes, climate change is caused by certain gases absorbing heat. But that’s a very shallow explanation. To really understand climate change, we need to understand the social reasons that keep us emitting greenhouse gases. Likewise with COVID-19. Yes, the direct cause is the virus. But managing its effects requires us to understand human behaviour and its wider economic context.

Tackling both COVID-19 and climate change is much easier if you reduce nonessential economic activity. For climate change this is because if you produce less stuff, you use less energy, and emit fewer greenhouse gases. The epidemiology of COVID-19 is rapidly evolving. But the core logic is similarly simple. People mix together and spread infections. This happens in households, and in workplaces, and on the journeys people make. Reducing this mixing is likely to reduce person-to-person transmission and lead to fewer cases overall.

This article is part of Conversation Insights The Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.

Reducing contact between people probably also helps with other control strategies. One common control strategy for infectious disease outbreaks is contact tracing and isolation, where an infected person’s contacts are identified, then isolated to prevent further disease spread. This is most effective when you trace a high percentage of contacts. The fewer contacts a person has, the fewer you have to trace to get to that higher percentage.

We can see from Wuhan that social distancing and lockdown measures like this are effective. Political economy is useful in helping us understand why they weren’t introduced earlier in European countries and the US.

A fragile economy

Lockdown is placing pressure on the global economy. We face a serious recession. This pressure has led some world leaders to call for an easing of lockdown measures.

Even as 19 countries sat in a state of lockdown, the US president, Donald Trump, and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called for roll backs in mitigation measures. Trump called for the American economy to get back to normal in three weeks (he has now accepted that social distancing will need to be maintained for much longer). Bolsonaro said: “Our lives have to go on. Jobs must be kept … We must, yes, get back to normal.”

In the UK meanwhile, four days before calling for a three-week lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was only marginally less optimistic, saying that the UK could turn the tide within 12 weeks. Yet even if Johnson is correct, it remains the case that we are living with an economic system that will threaten collapse at the next sign of pandemic.

The economics of collapse are fairly straightforward. Businesses exist to make a profit. If they can’t produce, they can’t sell things. This means they won’t make profits, which means they are less able to employ you. Businesses can and do (over short time periods) hold on to workers that they don’t need immediately: they want to be able to meet demand when the economy picks back up again. But, if things start to look really bad, then they won’t. So, more people lose their jobs or fear losing their jobs. So they buy less. And the whole cycle starts again, and we spiral into an economic depression.

In a normal crisis the prescription for solving this is simple. The government spends, and it spends until people start consuming and working again. (This prescription is what the economist John Maynard Keynes is famous for).

But normal interventions won’t work here because we don’t want the economy to recover (at least, not immediately). The whole point of the lockdown is to stop people going to work, where they spread the disease. One recent study suggested that lifting lockdown measures in Wuhan (including workplace closures) too soon could see China experience a second peak of cases later in 2020.

As the economist James Meadway wrote, the correct COVID-19 response isn’t a wartime economy – with massive upscaling of production. Rather, we need an “anti-wartime” economy and a massive scaling back of production. And if we want to be more resilient to pandemics in the future (and to avoid the worst of climate change) we need a system capable of scaling back production in a way that doesn’t mean loss of livelihood.

So what we need is a different economic mindset. We tend to think of the economy as the way we buy and sell things, mainly consumer goods. But this is not what an economy is or needs to be. At its core, the economy is the way we take our resources and turn them into the things we need to live. Looked at this way, we can start to see more opportunities for living differently that allow us to produce less stuff without increasing misery.

I and other ecological economists have long been concerned with the question of how you produce less in a socially just way, because the challenge of producing less is also central to tackling climate change. All else equal, the more we produce the more greenhouse gases we emit. So how do you reduce the amount of stuff you make while keeping people in work?

Proposals include reducing the length of the working week, or, as some of my recent work has looked at, you could allow people to work more slowly and with less pressure. Neither of these is directly applicable to COVID-19, where the aim is reducing contact rather than output, but the core of the proposals is the same. You have to reduce people’s dependence on a wage to be able to live.

What is the economy for?

The key to understanding responses to COVID-19 is the question of what the economy is for. Currently, the primary aim of the global economy is to facilitate exchanges of money. This is what economists call “exchange value”.

The dominant idea of the current system we live in is that exchange value is the same thing as use value. Basically, people will spend money on the things that they want or need, and this act of spending money tells us something about how much they value its “use”. This is why markets are seen as the best way to run society. They allow you to adapt, and are flexible enough to match up productive capacity with use value.

What COVID-19 is throwing into sharp relief is just how false our beliefs about markets are. Around the world, governments fear that critical systems will be disrupted or overloaded: supply chains, social care, but principally healthcare. There are lots of contributing factors to this. But let’s take two.

First, it is quite hard to make money from many of the most essential societal services. This is in part because a major driver of profits is labour productivity growth: doing more with fewer people. People are a big cost factor in many businesses, especially those that rely on personal interactions, like healthcare. Consequently, productivity growth in the healthcare sector tends to be lower than the rest of the economy, so its costs go up faster than average.

Second, jobs in many critical services aren’t those that tend to be highest valued in society. Many of the best paid jobs only exist to facilitate exchanges; to make money. They serve no wider purpose to society: they are what the anthropologist David Graeber calls “bullshit jobs”. Yet because they make lots of money we have lots of consultants, a huge advertising industry and a massive financial sector. Meanwhile, we have a crisis in health and social care, where people are often forced out of useful jobs they enjoy, because these jobs don’t pay them enough to live.

Bullshit jobs are innumerable. Jesus Sanz/Shutterstock.com

Pointless jobs

The fact that so many people work pointless jobs is partly why we are so ill prepared to respond to COVID-19. The pandemic is highlighting that many jobs are not essential, yet we lack sufficient key workers to respond when things go bad.

People are compelled to work pointless jobs because in a society where exchange value is the guiding principle of the economy, the basic goods of life are mainly available through markets. This means you have to buy them, and to buy them you need an income, which comes from a job.

The other side of this coin is that the most radical (and effective) responses that we are seeing to the COVID-19 outbreak challenge the dominance of markets and exchange value. Around the world governments are taking actions that three months ago looked impossible. In Spain, private hospitals have been nationalised. In the UK, the prospect of nationalising various modes of transport has become very real. And France has stated its readiness to nationalise large businesses.

Likewise, we are seeing the breakdown of labour markets. Countries like Denmark and the UK are providing people with an income in order to stop them from going to work. This is an essential part of a successful lockdown. These measures are far from perfect. Nonetheless, it is a shift from the principle that people have to work in order to earn their income, and a move towards the idea that people deserve to be able to live even if they cannot work.

This reverses the dominant trends of the last 40 years. Over this time, markets and exchange values have been seen as the best way of running an economy. Consequently, public systems have come under increasing pressures to marketise, to be run as though they were businesses who have to make money. Likewise, workers have become more and more exposed to the market – zero-hours contracts and the gig economy have removed the layer of protection from market fluctuations that long term, stable, employment used to offer.

COVID-19 appears to be reversing this trend, taking healthcare and labour goods out of the market and putting it into the hands of the state. States produce for many reasons. Some good and some bad. But unlike markets, they do not have to produce for exchange value alone.

These changes give me hope. They give us the chance to save many lives. They even hint at the possibility of longer term change that makes us happier and helps us tackle climate change. But why did it take us so long to get here? Why were many countries so ill-prepared to slowdown production? The answer lies in a recent World Health Organisation report: they did not have the right “mindset”.

Our economic imaginations

There has been a broad economic consensus for 40 years. This has limited the ability of politicians and their advisers to see cracks in the system, or imagine alternatives. This mindset is driven by two linked beliefs:

The market is what delivers a good quality of life, so it must be protected

The market will always return to normal after short periods of crisis

These views are common to many Western countries. But they are strongest in the UK and the US, both of which have appeared to be badly prepared to respond to COVID-19.

In the UK, attendees at a private engagement reportedly summarised the Prime Minister’s most senior aide’s approach to COVID-19 as “herd immunity, protect the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad”. The government has denied this, but if real, it’s not surprising. At a government event early in the pandemic, a senior civil servant said to me: “Is it worth the economic disruption? If you look at the treasury valuation of a life, probably not.”

This kind of view is endemic in a particular elite class. It is well represented by a Texas official who argued that many elderly people would gladly die rather than see the US sink into economic depression. This view endangers many vulnerable people (and not all vulnerable people are elderly), and, as I have tried to lay out here, it is a false choice.

One of the things the COVID-19 crisis could be doing, is expanding that economic imagination. As governments and citizens take steps that three months ago seemed impossible, our ideas about how the world works could change rapidly. Let us look at where this re-imagining could take us.

Four futures

To help us visit the future, I’m going to use a technique from the field of futures studies. You take two factors you think will be important in driving the future, and you imagine what will happen under different combinations of those factors.

The factors I want to take are value and centralisation. Value refers to whatever is the guiding principle of our economy. Do we use our resources to maximise exchanges and money, or do we use them to maximise life? Centralisation refers to the ways that things are organised, either by of lots of small units or by one big commanding force. We can organise these factors into a grid, which can then be populated with scenarios. So we can think about what might happen if we try to respond to the coronavirus with the four extreme combinations:

1) State capitalism: centralised response, prioritising exchange value 2) Barbarism: decentralised response prioritising exchange value 3) State socialism: centralised response, prioritising the protection of life 4) Mutual aid: decentralised response prioritising the protection of life.

State capitalism

State capitalism is the dominant response we are seeing across the world right now. Typical examples are the UK, Spain and Denmark.

The state capitalist society continues to pursue exchange value as the guiding light of the economy. But it recognises that markets in crisis require support from the state. Given that many workers cannot work because they are ill, and fear for their lives, the state steps in with extended welfare. It also enacts massive Keynesian stimulus by extending credit and making direct payments to businesses.

The expectation here is that this will be for a short period. The primary function of the steps being taken is to allow as many businesses as possible to keep on trading. In the UK, for example, food is still distributed by markets (though the government has relaxed competition laws). Where workers are supported directly, this is done in ways that seek to minimise disruption of normal labour market functioning. So, for example, as in the UK, payments to workers have to be applied for and distributed by employers. And the size of payments is made on the basis of the exchange value a worker usually creates in the market, rather than the usefulness of their work.

Could this be a successful scenario? Possibly, but only if COVID-19 proves controllable over a short period. As full lockdown is avoided to maintain market functioning, transmission of infection is still likely to continue. In the UK, for instance, non-essential construction is still continuing, leaving workers mixing on building sites. But limited state intervention will become increasingly hard to maintain if death tolls rise. Increased illness and death will provoke unrest and deepen economic impacts, forcing the state to take more and more radical actions to try to maintain market functioning.

Barbarism

This is the bleakest scenario. Barbarism is the future if we continue to rely on exchange value as our guiding principle and yet refuse to extend support to those who get locked out of markets by illness or unemployment. It describes a situation that we have not yet seen.

Businesses fail and workers starve because there are no mechanisms in place to protect them from the harsh realities of the market. Hospitals are not supported by extraordinary measures, and so become overwhelmed. People die. Barbarism is ultimately an unstable state that ends in ruin or a transition to one of the other grid sections after a period of political and social devastation.

Could this happen? The concern is that either it could happen by mistake during the pandemic, or by intention after the pandemic peaks. The mistake is if a government fails to step in in a big enough way during the worst of the pandemic. Support might be offered to businesses and households, but if this isn’t enough to prevent market collapse in the face of widespread illness, chaos would ensue. Hospitals might be sent extra funds and people, but if it’s not enough, ill people will be turned away in large numbers.

Potentially just as consequential is the possibility of massive austerity after the pandemic has peaked and governments seek to return to “normal”. This has been threatened in Germany. This would be disastrous. Not least because defunding of critical services during austerity has impacted the ability of countries to respond to this pandemic.

The subsequent failure of the economy and society would trigger political and social unrest, leading to a failed state and the collapse of both state and community welfare systems.

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State socialism

State socialism describes the first of the futures we could see with a cultural shift that places a different kind of value at the heart of the economy. This is the future we arrive at with an extension of the measures we are currently seeing in the UK, Spain and Denmark.

The key here is that measures like nationalisation of hospitals and payments to workers are seen not as tools to protect markets, but a way to protect life itself. In such a scenario, the state steps in to protect the parts of the economy that are essential to life: the production of food, energy and shelter for instance, so that the basic provisions of life are no longer at the whim of the market. The state nationalises hospitals, and makes housing freely available. Finally, it provides all citizens with a means of accessing various goods – both basics and any consumer goods we are able to produce with a reduced workforce.

Citizens no longer rely on employers as intermediaries between them and the basic materials of life. Payments are made to everyone directly and are not related to the exchange value they create. Instead, payments are the same to all (on the basis that we deserve to be able to live, simply because we are alive), or they are based on the usefulness of the work. Supermarket workers, delivery drivers, warehouse stackers, nurses, teachers, and doctors are the new CEOs.

It’s possible that state socialism emerges as a consequence of attempts at state capitalism and the effects of a prolonged pandemic. If deep recessions happen and there is disruption in supply chains such that demand cannot be rescued by the kind of standard Keynesian policies we are seeing now (printing money, making loans easier to get and so on), the state may take over production.

There are risks to this approach – we must be careful to avoid authoritarianism. But done well, this may be our best hope against an extreme COVID-19 outbreak. A strong state able to marshal the resources to protect the core functions of economy and society.

Mutual aid

Mutual aid is the second future in which we adopt the protection of life as the guiding principle of our economy. But, in this scenario, the state does not take a defining role. Rather, individuals and small groups begin to organise support and care within their communities.

The risks with this future is that small groups are unable to rapidly mobilise the kind of resources needed to effectively increase healthcare capacity, for instance. But mutual aid could enable more effective transmission prevention, by building community support networks that protect the vulnerable and police isolation rules. The most ambitious form of this future sees new democratic structures arise. Groupings of communities that are able to mobilise substantial resources with relative speed. People coming together to plan regional responses to stop disease spread and (if they have the skills) to treat patients.

This kind of scenario could emerge from any of the others. It is a possible way out of barbarism, or state capitalism, and could support state socialism. We know that community responses were central to tackling the West African Ebola outbreak. And we already see the roots of this future today in the groups organising care packages and community support. We can see this as a failure of state responses. Or we can see it as a pragmatic, compassionate societal response to an unfolding crisis.

Hope and fear

These visions are extreme scenarios, caricatures, and likely to bleed into one another. My fear is the descent from state capitalism into barbarism. My hope is a blend of state socialism and mutual aid: a strong, democratic state that mobilises resources to build a stronger health system, prioritises protecting the vulnerable from the whims of the market and responds to and enables citizens to form mutual aid groups rather than working meaningless jobs.

What hopefully is clear is that all these scenarios leave some grounds for fear, but also some for hope. COVID-19 is highlighting serious deficiencies in our existing system. An effective response to this is likely to require radical social change. I have argued it requires a drastic move away from markets and the use of profits as the primary way of organising an economy. The upside of this is the possibility that we build a more humane system that leaves us more resilient in the face of future pandemics and other impending crises like climate change.

Social change can come from many places and with many influences. A key task for us all is demanding that emerging social forms come from an ethic that values care, life, and democracy. The central political task in this time of crisis is living and (virtually) organising around those values.

About The Author:

Simon Mair is a Research Fellow in Ecological Economics at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of Surrey

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

#pandemic #coronavirus #futurism #the future of work

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genaleah · 4 years

Text

I can give the full context! It's going under a cut though because there's a lot to it 👍

So here we go....

TMA!AU

Aka AU², the Nightmare Boogaloo!

So right off the bat, this an AU-within-an-AU of the Wildcards becoming living embodiments of fear ala The Magnus Archives podcast. Here's a list of the Entities on the wiki, though obvious warning for spoilers. (Granted, I've only just started season 4!)

In this AU offshoot, each character becomes a monster tied to a different entity of fear. Nelson with The Eye, Guybrush with The Spiral, Eddie with The Desolation, Manny with The End, and Sam and Max with The Hunt.

Guybrush gets hit first + worst. It starts off very slowly, at first he just feels a little confused/dissociated, but then he starts to have increasing difficulty figuring out when he's asleep or awake, and whether he's in reality or the mindscape. Doorways that exist in reality will suddenly lead him into his dreams with no way out, and then suddenly he's back in reality with no warning. Eventually this crescendos to a point in which he can't find his way OUT of his mind at all, and it all starts warping more and more into something unrecognizable. What feels like months of sleepless, ceaseless wandering is only a single day that he's gone missing. This slip through reality is also what ends up transforming his own body, he changes himself into a reflection of his own state of mind.

When he comes back out, he unwittingly transforms the Motherlobe into another maze. Not everyone experiences this or even realizes that anything is wrong. The victims who get trapped in it become fellow reflections of The Spiral, albeit with their own fears/nightmares influencing how they turn out. The Psychonauts as a whole is being purposefully targeted as a breeding ground of fear & new avatars for the Spiral, and Guybrush was chosen as its architect against his will. He just had the right combination of powers and pain to create a smooth, seamless transition.

Simultaneously, other agents who don't encounter this are being changed by other Fears who don't want to lose their share of influence in the world. Psychics are PRIME fodder.

Manny and Eddie get infected by their respective Fears while they're away from the Motherlobe, just out and about doing their own things.

Manny doesn't even engage with his directly to begin with, other people start becoming increasingly fearful of him until the change in role suddenly overtakes him. People try to make bids for their own immortality, and whoop, suddenly he's got the dice or playing cards or what-have-you, and he always knows that he's going to win in the end. The losers die immediately in front of him. Sometimes he can be more of a direct reaper and make the offer first, but he's not totally comfortable doing that unless he REALLY thinks someone/something deserves it.

Eddie has probably the worst situation. If he touches anybody they will die a painful burning death. A single touch can cause 2nd or 3rd degree burns, prolonged contact will set the victim in flames. But worse than that is the fact that his alignment with the Desolation makes him want to destroy things and people of worth- so that he creates an acute fear of loss and pain to those who would miss them. He’s the most physically dangerous to be around, so he’s taken to wearing a full-body motorcycle get up so that no one can touch him accidentally. He's safe to the touch now, technically, but it doesn't stop him from being ultra careful. He’s trying to abide by some ghost-rider morals here and primarily target bad people or other monsters, but there’s always going to be some collateral damage.

As for Sam & Max... They take a while to really notice the shift happening, but their final stage can best be described as this: Imagine if Noir Sam enjoyed it. That's basically how both of them would behave. They've always loved hunting down perps, but now their chases are a little more... intense. Frantic. If they've had a good one they're satiated for a while, but going too long without it makes them more antsy and violent. The hunting is fun and fulfilling for them!

Sometimes it can ramp up into killing, but considering that the whole gang is out looking for answers, that means a lot of capture and kidnapping instead, with the intent of interrogation (thanks to Nelson). And some monster hunting on the side!

Nelson is one of the last to change, but he gets caught up in the shenanigans pretty early on after first finding Guybrush in his noodley eldritch state. He starts trying to figure out some way to undo all of their conditions and bring them back to normal. Well, "normal".

But slowly he shifts from "I need to know how to help my friends" to "I need to understand what's happening" to "I NEED to know as many deep dark secrets as possible in order to live". With the change in his behavior, he basically becomes a textbook supernatural Man in Black entity, and his clothing starts reflecting that. His eyes become bloodshot and light-sensitive, so he takes to wearing shades while trying to appear normal.

Which also brings me to the next character! @zeroodd came up with a great story for Elaine, so I will c/p it here :

What if her and Nelson had teamed up in the beginning for a solution.

Just one night they're both working hard on it and Nelson starts asking about what they've found so far

but then he

keeps asking questions

and Elaine looks over and he's just got a tape recorder right up to her face

"Do you know he's gone for good?"

Course he'd try to backtrack and apologize but Elaine has to face facts that Nelson is as much of a threat as any of them now.

She leaves the group for a while in order to study this fear stuff on her own, and comes to the conclusion that she needs to willingly get in on it if she wants any hope of surviving this increasingly dangerous world. She eventually joins The Web. She starts out feeling nervous about things being out of her control and scary, which suddenly shifts to her wanting to control more things and oh cool, these spiders help me do that! By the time she rejoins with the group everyone is full-blown monster mash so there’s very little to hide from anyone. (Manny still HATES bugs though, and would like the spiders far far away from him, por favor.)

So, how do they all go back to normal? Well... They don't. After hitting dead end after dead end, realizing they're definitely not human anymore, and learning the true nature of the fears as a whole, they're forced to accept it and try to maintain themselves as best they can.

The thing that would make the changes so insidious is that it would all gel with who they are as people. By the time they're at that final point, it would feel like fate that they wound up that way, like it's everything they're supposed to be.

The power of friendship possibly even added to this, because rather than struggling alone and possibly fighting back against it, they understood and cared for each other through the worst of it, which made accepting their new selves a lot easier.

BUT WAIT! There are a few more links left in this story:

How did all of this start, really? Well, consider the fact that in the normal Wildcard AU (???), LeChuck is responsible for a lot of trauma in Guybrush’s past that make his hold on reality a little rough. Add to that his ability to create very life-like illusions, and the poor pirate becomes the perfect conduit for the Spiral to take hold. In this AU, LeChuck was the one who got the ball rolling on his transformation out of hopes that he could control the Spiral itself by making his brother the primary avatar, and then bringing about a new world of madness in which he is the sole, sane ruler. Guybrush hasn’t lost his sense of self yet, but as more and more chaos and fear builds throughout the world as a whole, he’s losing track of himself more often.

After all of his work and research, Nelson decides to try and bargain with the Fears directly. Dealing with supernatural forces hands-on has worked so far! (I'm not sure if he would have to find other fear avatars to work this out with, or if he could try to ritualistically communicate with the fear entity as a whole, but he figures something out.) His bargain is this:

He offers to lessen the burden of the Spiral off of Guybrush a bit. In exchange for LeChuck being removed as a threat, Nelson will let go of the last vestiges of humanity, and become a full-on fear entity to work for both The Eye AND The Spiral. The Spiral gets all of the knowledge he collects as a watcher for the Eye, The Eye gets to know that someone reasonable is helping to keep the Spiral in check a bit. Diplomacy!

The deal works out, Lechuck gets trapped in the PUZZLE ZONE and Guybrush gets to reclaim a bit of his sanity/sense of self again. In the aftermath, Nelson's got a permanent tape-recorder effect to his voice, but on actual recordings he sounds as clear as if he were right there, with little or no effect where it should be. The pupil of his left eye has become a spiral, while Guybrush's solidified into a round one. Nelson's blending of roles works even better as a MIB: He creates the uncanny feeling of being monitored, and you get the sense that he's always lying about his motives.

This new situation works out even better than expected, and he tries it again in order to help Eddie. Not that he could possibly take on a third fear responsibility, but at least he's living proof that giving the avatars of fear what they want can work out for the best, and make them more effective at being monsters!

Essentially: Give👏us👏work👏benefits👏

The deal between the Desolation and The End gives these boons: Manny can sometimes take a human form (better for targeting victims), and Eddie gets a lot more control over the heat and can turn it down to a low simmer. They get to work in tandem to create a NEW kind of fear, the burning loss of everything you've ever cared about, and the knowledge that at the end of all that suffering is an infinite, inescapable end.

Now the gang lives on a haunted ship (Philadelphia Experiment??) that they use to travel around the world and hunt down worse monsters / evil humans. And maybe save the world if need be? But mostly they just terrorize people and feed off their fear.

In summary: everybody's awful monsters but it worked out fine in the end. For some reason the Magnus Archives made me go "But what if this was a found family story and they unionized and lived on a boat??" I can't do aus normally anymore, maybe I never could.

#wildcards au #tma!au #final pam voice: GOD FORGIVE ME

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